Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group Meeting
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
41 1st Street, Brooklyn NY 11231, Mary Star of the Sea, Community Room
EPA UPDATE
Report from Christos Tsiamis, EPA Project Manager for the Gowanus Canal Cleanup
While there are no pressing updates regarding the progress of EPA work in the Canal, Christos does offer important points of clarification.
Recently, someone called the police regarding the equipment being used to monitor conditions on the Canal. NYPD cut the cable and disposed of the box. EPA is going to work more diligently to ensure that contact information is included with all data-collection equipment to prevent future incidents like this one.
Regarding Water Quality: citizen science in the canal reportedly showed that the canal was swimmable. The EPA does not endorse this data, and does not make decisions based on single points of data.
Regarding the Discussion of Stormwater Retention Tanks at the NYC Long Term Control Plan Presentation and Public Meeting: The City is obligated to prepare this plan under an order from New York State. It is important to note that it would cost much more money to acquire private property adjacent to the canal to construct the EPA-mandated tanks rather than the public property farther away from the canal. EPA has received an evaluation of sites from New York City and the EPA has disagreements with this work; their comments have been submitted and are part of the public record. At the public meeting discussing the LTCP, the City discussed work having to do with the Superfund cleanup, including the locations and sizes of CSO retention tanks. The City was moving forward without talking about EPA feedback offered on the retention tanks. What the City presented at that meeting will not be constructed in the neighborhood to manage CSO runoff.
EPA is waiting for the City to respond to several batches of comments regarding final proposals for the Sponge Park project in the 1st St Basin. EPA recommends that the City address capacity of 2nd street storm sewers to receive water during wet weather events before the Sponge Park will be viable. In addition, the EPA wants the City to develop mechanisms by which the success of the project can be evaluated.
Regarding the bridges spanning the canal: the MTA was able to make all three bridges operable. A City barge hit a cable at the 3rd Street Bridge and the bridge is currently not operable.
Points of Information from CAG Members:
- It is nice to see the combination of Superfund and LTCP information in a single presentation.
- There is a concern about flooding in public housing and the fact that the City is presenting the construction of the tanks as if they are choosing to do so, and not as if the EPA is forcing them to do so. As far as the EPA is concerned, the tanks will get built because they must, but the City seems to be trying to reduce the size and quality of the tanks by using Green Infrastructure to supplant their need to install the retention tanks.
- Thomas Greene Park is currently closed as of 5/15/2015 for the installation of fences to separate the children’s playground from other leisure areas.
COMMITTEE UPDATES
The Facilitation Team is now up and running. Committees should work with their Facilitation Team representative to request any items that need to be sent around to the full CAG. In addition, Facilitation Team members will help decide what goes on the agenda each month, and will be responsible for disseminating all relevant information.
Ute will also begin helping post things on the website, and the Facilitation Team will decide what fits the CAG guidelines for posting to the web. This will also become clearer once the Outreach Committee formulates the CAG Communications Plan. Doug will continue to offer General Meeting and email support, while Roxanne will offer facilitation support and record-keeping for general and committee meetings.
Water Quality/Technical Committee
No meeting, as Monday meeting space is difficult to find. Tuesday meeting space is better, but the committee needs to decide which Tuesday of the month is a good fit for regular meetings.
The Committee is working on a letter to request extended comment periods on upcoming City and State projects. Draft letter was sent around for approval.
The committee still needs to send the letter about the resolutions regarding Water Quality to the DEC.
Archaeology Committee
The committee received an excellent presentation on the Marylander site, and what the opportunities and barriers are for realizing a public space in the area with a memorial to the Marylanders and/or the Battle of Brooklyn. The committee will begin to explore ways to incorporate these themes into the Superfund site.
Christos recently sent information about the role of the Consulting Party. Namely: the party will be convened twice per year.
A letter outlining the CAG recommendations and Archaeology Committee concerns for the 1st Street Basin was sent to Commissioner Lloyd.
The next Archaeology Committee meeting is June 9.
Outreach Committee
Recently the Outreach Committee met to begin working on the Communications Plan. Though the meeting only had two people, the foundations of the plan are under way.
Gowanus Expo is coming up on May 28th from 5-8 p.m., and would be a great opportunity to table or distribute some of the ready-to-go materials about the function of the CAG and the context of the Superfund cleanup. If there are no available members for tabling, the Conservancy can put some fliers out anyway.
Administrative Committee
The Admin committee will meet in person on the 3rd Wednesday of the month as needed.
The committee is working on a review of the CAG bylaws. Efforts to simplify some regulations are under way, but the strict attendance guidelines are so important that the committee prefers to tweak them rather than rewrite them. Thus it remains that the CAG will address membership once per year in October to evaluate whether members are adhering to attendance regulations, and will then make suggestions about removing non-compliant members.
Motion to accept these attendance guidelines. Motion passes.
Summary of Standing Meeting Times
Outreach: Alternating Friday mornings and Thursday evenings, 2nd week of month
Archaeology: Every 3rd Monday
Water Quality/Technical Committee: 3rd Tuesday of the month (Until 2nd Tuesday frees up)
Administrative Committee: TBD
OTHER BUSINESS
Please note that DEC Commissioner Lloyd will be present at the June 30 Meeting.
SUMMARY OF MOTIONS:
- Motion passed to continue to review membership on a yearly basis with regard to attendance compliance
MEETING PARTICIPANTS
CAG Members:
Joseph Alexiou
Sabine Aronowsky
Jewel Barker
Beverly Corbin
Sean Dixon
Marlene Donnelly
Rafael Gomez de Luna
Nekia Jones
Katia Kelly
Ariel Krasnow
Linda Mariano
Eric McClure
John McGettrick
Maryann Young (Alternate for Rita Miller)
Maria Pagano
Andrea Parker
Debra Scotto
Mark Shames
Ute Zimmerman